SBJ Morning Buzzcast
SBJ Morning Buzzcast: June 26, 2024
Start your morning with Buzzcast with Austin Karp: A huge crowd for Messi at MetLife; the Opening Ceremony is one month out; good numbers for U.S. Olympic Trials, Caitlin vs. Angel and the College World Series; Jacksonville approves a Jags stadium deal; Alex Meruelo is done with the NHL in Arizona; and the Chiefs see opportunity with a Hallmark movie.
- Duration:
- 10m
- Broadcast on:
- 26 Jun 2024
- Audio Format:
- mp3
(upbeat music) Rise and Shine, this is your morning buscast for Wednesday, June 26th, I'm Austin Carp. If there was any question left as to whether folks were paying attention to the Copa America that's going on here in the U.S., I think the audience at MetLife Stadium for Argentina, Chile last night put some of that to bed. Over 81,000 fans packing the home of the Jets and the Giants, you had fans of Argentina and Messing taking over Times Square. It really kind of gave you a glimpse as well into what the final might look like of the 2026 World Cup. That's going to be at that venue. Really impressive numbers there for the event and kudos to those fans from Argentina for really rocking out at MetLife. So we are officially one month out from the opening ceremony of the Paris Olympics. It's going to be the first opening ceremony outside of a stadium. We're talking 180 boats expected on the set, 10,000 athletes, 326,000 spectators on the river banks, 45,000 police officers, 18,000 soldiers supported by 22,000 private contractors. And if the telecast doesn't hit 20 million viewers on NBC's Airways here in the U.S., I'd be very surprised. We're already seeing some stronger numbers for NBC around the U.S. Olympic trials. That started with the nine nights of swimming from Indianapolis with NBC seeing a 21% viewership increase compared to 2021 that was leading into the Tokyo Games. Diving, also a healthy bump this year. And this past Sunday in Prontyne with Snoop Dogg in the booth for part of the telecast, the U.S. track and field trials saw its best night on NBC since 2012. That was boosted by Noah Liles winning the men's 100 meters. Also on Saturday we should carry Richardson winning Saturday night for NBC, also a win. This weekend, we're going to see how much cinnamon bios can move the needle during the gymnastics trials for Minneapolis. But will this mean gains for Paris? Even with fewer Americans watching traditional TV in the U.S., I think NBC is shaping up for nice gains, especially compared to Tokyo in 2021. That suffered from a little bit of a malaise around COVID and time zones that were just not friendly for a U.S. audience. Check out this week's SBJ Sports Media podcast that dropped earlier today for more on this. As our Olympic writer, Rachel Axton, joins me to give her views on the trials here in the U.S. and what to look forward to ahead of those Paris Olympics. But it's not just Olympic action seeing gains among sports telecasts on television. The love is being spread around. Maybe it's just because it's the summer and a lot of entertainment shows have taken a break. People don't have new episodes of below deck or 90-day fiance or whatever is in their queue. But sports keeps churning out some solid increases. Let's start with game seven of the Stanley Cup final on Monday night. You know, without a rabid audience in Edmonton factoring in, that's not part of ABC number, my thought was that something between five and a half and six million viewers for that game seven would be solid for the Panthers' Boilers finale. Actual retail value in the end, 7.7 million viewers for ABC impressed me for sure, given the markets involved, not big traditional hockey markets here in the U.S. Was it anywhere near the last game seven in 2019? No, but that was an NHL record audience for that Blues Bruins game, whether on 8.9 million viewers. This also didn't top any of the NBA finals games recently in the U.S., nor any of the World Series games last fall on U.S. TV. But everyone, remember the NHL is unique and that Canada brings an outsized audience for the sport. And when Panthers' Boilers adds that Canadian audience, that sports net, CBC audience, that's going on there north of the border, this was the second best NHL game number on record. Behind only that Bruins Canucks game seven for the Stanley Cup final back in 2011. I think it was an impressive audience for Oilers, Panthers. The NHL should be very happy. NHL now gets to wrap an impressive postseason with the draft that's going to be Friday at the sphere in Las Vegas, something I'm very much looking forward to seeing the visuals of. My colleague, Alex Silverman, is going to be on the ground for that. Can't wait to see what he has coming out of that event. Other viewership notes you need to know about. Kaitlyn Clark and Angel Reece set another WNBA record dating back 23 years. It's the second time in as many weeks that the fever and the sky have done so. This time ESPN 2.3 million viewers on Sunday that passed 2.25 million for the same match up on CBS. Just a week ago, that's the best WNBA audience since 2001 dating back to those NBC years early in the league. Clark helped also deliver another WNBA record for ION on Friday night for a game against the dream. I can't wait to see what Clark and Reece can potentially help deliver for the upcoming WNBA All-Star game, which will see the All-Stars take on Team USA ahead of the Olympics, some real star power. Finally, the Men's College World Series, the three-game final there, second best on record. That saw Tennessee when it's first college baseball title, knocking off Texas A&M. It's behind only last year's three-game LSU Florida championship series. And this comes in the wake of the Women's College World Series drawing its best championship round on record. ESPN is really going to have a solid deal here that it signed earlier in the year. It's new NCAA media rights pack that'll start with the next school year, softball, baseball, gymnastics, volleyball, women's hoops. These are growth sports and they are delivering gains on TV. Another day, another big NFL stadium deal. This one down in North Florida. The Jacksonville City Council agreed to a 30-year lease last night in a funding agreement with the Jaguars as part of the city's largest single-development spending deal in city history. It's 1.4 billion in upgrades for Everbank Stadium. The jags in the city have agreed to each contribute $625 million for the Renault, but the city also has agreed to pay $150 million over the next two seasons on maintenance and repairs to prepare the stadium for construction. That means the city's going to be responsible for 55% of the total cost. Now, similar to the Panthers' deal, struck Monday in Charlotte, the owner of the jags, Chad Kahn, will be responsible for cost overruns on the upgrades, while the deal does need to find a OK from 75% of NFL owners in October. This looks like it's going to keep NFL football in Jacksonville for the long term. If it all goes down, construction is scheduled to begin after the team's 20-25 season and conclude in time for the 20-28 season. A hat tip to Mark Lamping is hitting his team down in Jacksonville, as this has been close to an eight-year process getting it all approved. A day after saying he would not pursue arena options following the Arizona State Land Department's decision to cancel an auction, Alex Meruella is walking away from ownership of the coyotes. Any expansion franchise would now likely be under a new owner if the NFL decides to expand back into the greater Phoenix market. You have to figure Gary Bentman and Co, if they decide the market is still right for hockey, will likely wait a year for the dust to settle on all this. But at the end of another chapter for NHL hockey in Arizona, and now real questions are there as to whether the league is going to come back to the desert. Some other quick hitters to get everyone on their way this morning, unlike in the idea of a potential rexom, Birmingham City match, played here in the US, some serious ownership star power there in Tom Brady, Ryan Reynolds, Rob McElaney. I imagine that sort of game would sell out some big venues here in the US. I'm also digging what diamond baseball holdings continues to do in the minor league baseball space. That group is backed by Silver Lake and it's private equity billions. They just acquired their sixth team this year alone, bringing its portfolio to 35 teams across minor league baseball. This time it was the Charlotte Knights in my hometown. We're talking at least an eight figure deal for that club, maybe more. Beautiful ballpark here in Charlotte. Amazing view of uptown. That's all included in the deal. If you're ever in town in Charlotte and want to check out a really good ballpark experience, I cannot recommend taking in the Knights game enough. And then with this sort of portfolio of teams, diamond baseball can really do interesting things at scale. This season, that's already been a concert tour among its teams in ballparks with musicians like Miranda Lambert coming to places like Altoona, PA in Memphis and Midland, Texas. Expect more things like that from diamond as they continue to grow. While not my cup of tea on the film side, you have to appreciate the creativity of the Kansas City Chiefs, lending their IP for a Hallmark movie that will come out during the holiday season. Skydance Media also a part of this process in getting a green light for holiday touchdown. A Chiefs love story. Now, if that doesn't sound like a Hallmark movie, I don't know what does. But Arrow's head stadium will be part of the movie. It's a plot line involving a fan contest and a Chiefs director of fan engagement. Very original idea by Mark Donovan and his team in Kansas City. I may not be watching, but I know a lot of people are gonna be checking that out. Finally, it's NBA draft night. The first time that the first round gets its own night on ABC and ESPN, I'm gonna be definitely watching for the numbers there. I wanna see what the draft is able to produce. Hawks have the number one pick overall, but not really a lot of highly anticipated names in this year's draft, a number of international players that casual sports fans may not be aware of. Those are expected to go really high on the draft. I think the most anticipated pick may actually come on day two, which on Thursday afternoon on ESPN. And that's Bronnie James. People wanna see where Bronnie's gonna go 'cause it might pretend as to where his father, LeBron, goes. ESPN, like I said, has that day two draft Thursday afternoon, four p.m. That's your morning buzz cast for Wednesday, June 26th. I'm Austin Carp, back at it again tomorrow as well. I hope everyone has a great hump day and I will chat with you again Thursday. (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music)